The UNC Autism Research Center awarded two Kelley Altman Greer Family Autism Research Fund Pilot Awards to four UNC-Chapel Hill researchers, including cell biology researcher Matthew Judson, PhD, and biomedical engineering researcher Phillip Durham, PhD, at the UNC School of Medicine. The goal of this funding is to stimulate multidisciplinary collaborations in autism research among UNC faculty and incentivize researchers to generate pilot data for use in grants to the NIH and other external agencies.
The UNC Autism Research Center awarded two $12,500 Kelley Altman Greer Family Autism Research Fund Pilot Awards. The goal of this funding is to stimulate multidisciplinary collaborations in autism spectrum disorder among UNC faculty and incentivize researchers to generate pilot data for use in grants to the NIH and other external agencies.
One of the awards, titled, “Blood-brain barrier disruption to improve gene therapy delivery for treating ASD” went to Matthew Judson, PhD, an assistant professor in the UNC Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, and Phillip Durham, PhD, an assistant professor in the UNC-NCSU Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering. Their project will study the use of acoustic waves to non-invasively enhance gene therapy viral vector delivery. This project combines the gene therapy expertise of Judson with the acoustic engineering expertise of Durham to optimize acoustic approaches for delivering gene therapies to the brain. These non-invasive delivery methods offer a promising opportunity for treating genetic forms of ASD.
The other award, titled, “Empowering Culturally Diverse Families in Early Autism Intervention for Toddlers,” went to Jessica Amsbary, PhD, a Program Coordinator in the School of Education and a Technical Assistance Specialist at the FPG Child Development Institute, and Jessica Kinard, PhD, CCC-SLP, a bilingual speech-language pathologist at the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities. For this project, families from English- and Spanish-speaking cultures will participate in 2-3 focus groups (at least one in Spanish) to talk about their experiences with Early intervention services, including their priorities and needs when teaming up with Early intervention providers. The researchers will then use this information to develop an online learning module designed to support families in Early intervention. The research team will eventually seek funding to carry out a larger study to test whether the learning module for families, along with a learning module for Early intervention providers, helps children and families reach better outcomes.